Preludes to War by Joe Jackson

Author:Joe Jackson [Jackson, Joe]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Fantasy
Published: 2017-10-01T06:00:00+00:00

*****

By the following morning, all of the dead had been removed from the crucifixes and either cremated or prepared for burial. Twenty-six in total had been slain by the princes, though Kari wasn’t sure who had killed more. Her instincts were to assume Amnastru had killed all of them, but that didn’t make whoever she’d killed yesterday innocent by any stretch. Saovonn was a decent-sized town, but not so large that twenty-six killings would go unfelt. The fact that the other prince had been content to leave the bodies desecrated said all Kari needed to know of him.

There was a difference in the air this morning, Kari could feel it. Despite Javri’s claims that rebelling was utter madness, hope had settled in among these people. While repairing the shattered windows and other minor disturbances from Kari’s arcane outburst, they were making subtle reinforcements to their homes. Glyphs were being painted on the traditional mallasti homes, and the elestram, too, were marking their homes and places of business. Kari couldn’t read beshathan yet – those lessons were still to come – but she recognized some of the glyphs from her time in Rulaj.

The children followed Kari around the town, something Seanada found amusing, though the mallasti youths didn’t coat themselves in flour this time. Kari took stock of the town and its structures; it wasn’t very defensible, certainly not if someone came wielding fire with the sole intention of burning it to the ground. Still, it was populated by no small number of mallasti, and she surmised that their arcane power would be enough to counter any such attacks, if their hearts were in it. And when it came to defending their town, how could they not be?

No, Saovonn would certainly not do for a good battlefront. If she wanted a place to set her feet and call for Sekassus to attack, it would need to be a city. She wondered if any of the cities in Sorelizar had walls; a canny tyrant wouldn’t allow such a thing, all the better to make sure he could smash his own people if necessary. Still, that left him open to attack from outside, and Kari realized he would have a difficult time rebuffing Emanitar if the Spotted Lion invaded. The same might hold true in reverse, but under the Overking’s laws, Emanitar could legally invade the realm of his higher-ranked neighbor; Sekassus couldn’t do the same until attacked.

And Sekassus tried to murder Emanitar some time ago, Kari thought. She was certain the mallasti king would invade Sorelizar if given a golden opportunity. All Kari had to do – not that it was exactly straightforward or easy – was to kill those princes assigned to quelling the rioting in the south. From there, the mallasti people and their elestram neighbors would likely accept King Emanitar with open arms. But even if they didn’t, that was as far as Kari’s involvement in this plot went. From there, it was up to Emanitar, Morduri, and the Wraith.

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